To everybody’s relief the great Sultans-Spam of 2011 is nearing it’s end. All in all there was an accumulation of over 40 inches in Facebook entries, blogposts, postcards and emails in January alone. More than 3 times the average.

The good news is that the exhibit finally opens tonight. The images are hung (hehe), the white wine is warmed and the red wine is chilled, for that authentic art opening feel. I even had my prerequisite nightmares about another blizzard tonight or nobody showing up just for the heck of it, in which case I hereby solemnly swear to never be on Facebook again. Never. Ever.

The production of the show turned out to be more fun than I had expected. A big part of that was the help of dedicated professionals like David and Hashem at Printspace (printing), and George and Eric at Digital Plus (mounting). Another big part was the help of friends like (fellow photographers) Myriam Babin who schlepped and advised at pretty much every stage of the process, and Neil Beckerman who flouted every child labor law and made his seven year old daughter Lindsay help us hang the show for free.

I’m also thankful to the bloggers (always lovely) Julie Grahame at a.Curator, Stefan Falke, Fotocare, and the mighty Jackanory for spreading the word, alongside all the good people who sultanized Facebook with reposts and such.

In any case tonight’s the night. Be there, near Washington Square.

The Sultans will be on show at NYU’s Deutsches Haus from January, 28th to February, 25th, 2011.

The opening reception will be on Friday, January, 28th from 6 to 8 pm.

“Come to the NY opening of Dirk Anschütz’ new solo exhibition of his fabulous portrait series The Sultans: Turkish men of a certain age in all their patriarchal glory. As I’ve mentioned before, Dirk is a most entertaining photographer and story-teller, as evidenced on his blog. You can read the back story on The Sultans at TheHeavyLight.com ” – Julie Grahame, aCurator.com

“Dirk’s work is wonderful. Be sure to come to this event.” – Stella Kramer

“I couldn’t have said it any better.” – Dirk Anschütz

The Sultans will be on show at NYU’s Deutsches Haus from January, 28th to February, 25th, 2011.

The opening reception will be on Friday, January, 28th from 6 to 8 pm.

First things first before it’s too late: Happy new year to all you faithful readers (and of course to the faithless ones, too).

The Heavy Light is getting a slightly tardy start into 2011 partly because I’m still a little comatose from eating a ton of Janet and Joe’s christmas cookies (mmmh) but even more importantly because The Sultans are getting their own show at the Deutsche Haus at NYU.

Visitors can admire the glorious geezers in spectacular printed matter and in majestic sizes up to 30×40 inches; jaws will drop, i-phone affected minds might get blown!!!(!)

This will be my first solo show and as I’m writing my own hyperbole (any PR person looking for an internship?) I’m also a wee bit nervous about figuring out the whole process, especially about recouping the costs of the show or (dream big alert) turning a profit with it.

Over the years I’ve purchased a nice little collection of art but my continuing problems with buying other peoples’ work are that I have limited real estate for it, that it’s hard to come up with the money for something striking, and that I’m not sure what to do with it in the long run. I have some paintings, drawings and photographs on my walls that I dearly love (the art, not the walls) but after looking at them for years and years I wouldn’t mind a change. It’s pretty much impossible to sell the pieces since most of them are not collectables from big name artists, throwing them away would make me a bad person, and storing them (which is what I do) is a drag in New York.

So, here’s what I’m thinking: Renting art work. I know it’s done on a corporate level, so maybe it could work on a private level as well. Instead of selling a framed and mounted print for let’s say $1200 you could rent it for the first year at $400. If you really like it you rent it for another year ($350), if you really really like it you extend the rental ($325) and after 4 years and $1400 it’s yours. It’s a little more than buying outright but this way you can be sure it really goes well with the sofa. For the same price as purchasing one image you could also exchange it after one year for another Sultan and then for another. After that you could hang up a picture of a naked lady and look at that for a while.

So, now my question to you dear reader is:

Does renting art sound like a good idea to you, or more to the point, would you (yes, you) personally ever rent a piece of art for your home or as a gift?

Please respond via the comments on this site or if you’re the shy and private type I would love to get an email, a call , a letter or a visit, too.